History of the collection: Asia

Introduction

The British Museum’s founding collection – formed by Sir Hans
Sloane in the eighteenth century – contained a number of objects
from Asia. These were acquired as contemporary items at the time, a
collection policy which continues to the present as part of the
programme of fieldwork, research and publication in the Department
of Asia. The department aims to represent all aspects of
Asian culture, history and civilisation.

Development

The work of Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, Keeper of the
Department of British and Medieval Antiquities from 1866 to 1896,
inspired great interest in Asian culture, ethnography and
history. Franks used his influence and connections to make
many additions to the collection, such as the gifts from
archaeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham, first Director of the
Archaeological Survey of India. Cunningham’s presentation included
sculptures, inscriptions, coins and reliquaries.

One of Franks’ many legacies was a continued interest in Asia at
the Museum, the first organisational result coming in 1912 when a
separate sub-Department of Oriental Prints and Drawings was created
under Laurence Binyon, a connoisseur of Persian and Indian
miniatures.

In 1880 the India Museum, which had been home to the collections
of the East India Company, was closed and its exhibits dispersed
amongst various institutions including the Victoria and Albert
Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Archaeological objects
and sculptures, such as the Masson stupa-finds from Afghanistan and
the Amaravati collection, were transferred to the British
Museum.

In 1933 the Department of Oriental Antiquities was created to
bring together collections hitherto scattered across four
departments in the British Museum. The Department of Oriental
Antiquities and Ethnography joined this new department in 1946 on
the retirement of its Keeper Hermann Justus Braunholtz. The
combined collections made Oriental Antiquities one of the leading
repositories of Asian material in Europe.

The first Keeper was Basil Gray, a scholar of Chinese, Islamic
and Indian art. During his tenure the department acquired the
bronzes, paintings and books of Edward Moor, one of the first
westerners to write on India iconography in the early nineteenth
century.

In 2003 the Departments of Oriental Antiquities and Japanese
Antiquities merged to become the Department of Asia. In 2005 the
remaining Ethnography collections from Asia, over 20,000 items,
joined the new Department.

The work of the department today includes an active programme of
contemporary collecting in all parts of Asia, a tradition which is
integral to the Museum’s mission and which dates back to the first
collections of Sir Hans Sloane.

Collection and acquisition

A collection of Japanese material acquired from the family of
the German physician Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716) was part of the
original collection of Sir Hans Sloane. Other early acquisitions in
the eighteenth century included Indian seals and wooden
sculpture from the collection of the celebrated antiquary Charles
Townley.

The nineteenth century was an active period for South Asia
collecting. In 1830 Sir Robert Brownrigg gifted a gilded bronze
figure of Tara which had been found in the jungles of Sri Lanka.
The Bridge Collection of Indian sculpture was acquired in 1872
through Augustus Franks. This material was first acquired by
Charles ‘Hindoo’ Stuart, the first European to take an interest in
Indian art and aesthetics.

The department now holds the most comprehensive collection of
sculpture from the Indian subcontinent in the world. It includes
the celebrated Buddhist reliefs from Amaravati, the Bimaran
reliquary from Afghanistan, and the inscribed lion capital from
Mathura which make the first known reference to the Sarvastivada
school of Mahayana Buddhism.

The collection of Chinese antiquities includes paintings,
porcelain, lacquer, bronze, jade and applied arts. From
central Asia come the department’s collection of paintings from
Dunhuang, key works for understanding the diffusion of Buddhism in
Asia. The Japanese collection include an important group of objects
from the Kofun period collected by William Gowland (1842-1922), a
collection of swords from the R.W. Lloyd bequest, and a collection
of rare ritual masks donated by Mr Nobutaka Oka in 1999.

Like all departments at the British Museum, the Department of
Asia follows UNESCO guidelines for new acquisitions. Moreover the
department does not normally acquire objects which have left the
countries of South Asia after Independence in 1947.